Tennessee football will conclude its 2025 season on Dec. 30 when they travel west to Nashville to face Illinois in the Music City Bowl. It’s the Vols’ fourth ever trip to the Music City Bowl and their third since the Big 10 became the conference tie in along with the SEC.
If recent history is any indication, Tennessee will be the road team in the bowl game and will wear white uniforms. The SEC team is the home team in even years while the Big 10 is the home team in odd years. Missouri was the home team last season as they knocked off Iowa. Two years ago, Maryland was the home team while defeating Auburn.
The last de facto away team to win was Iowa in 2022 when they routed Kentucky 21-0 at Nissan Stadium thanks to two pick sixes. Tennessee was the road team and wore white uniforms in 2021 when Purdue defeated the Vols 48-45 in an overtime thriller.
Tennessee is 1-2 in its three previous trips to the Music City Bowl. The Vols wore orange uniforms in their loss against North Carolina in 2010. Tennessee wore Smokey Grey uniforms in its lone win in the Music City Bowl back in 2016 before wearing white uniforms in 2021.
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While Tennessee is the away team and will most likely wear white jerseys, its unclear exactly what uniforms the Vols will wear. Tennessee has two road uniforms— its all white uniforms and its white jerseys on orange pants. The Vols have not worn their white jerseys on orange pants all season.
Tennessee has worn all white uniforms three times this season with the Vols posting a 2-1 record in those games. Josh Heupel’s fifth Tennessee team lost at Alabama while winning at Kentucky and Florida in its “stormtrooper” uniforms.
The Vols are 1-0 in their Smokey Grey uniforms, 2-0 in their all orange uniforms, 3-2 in their traditional home uniforms and 0-1 in their dark mode uniforms this season.
Illinois enters the Music City Bowl with an 8-4 (5-4 Big 10) record. The Fighting Illini’s best win came against USC while they dropped games against Indiana, Ohio State, Washington and Wisconsin. Tennessee football enters the matchup 8-4 (4-4 SEC) with losses against Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.
Kickoff between Tennessee and Illinois is at 5:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Dec. 30 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. ESPN is broadcasting the game.
